Visual arts and crafts: SODRAC in Dakar for the annual meeting of CIAGP

On the 1st and 2nd of May, SODRAC participated in the meeting of the International Council of Creators of Graphic, Plastic and Photographic Arts (CIAGP) held in Senegal, held during the 13th edition of the Biennale of Contemporary African Art, DAK’ART.

With a mission to strengthen copyright and ensure fair compensation for creators of visual arts and crafts, representatives of collective rights organizations discussed key issues and their comparative evolution in the international field.

There is no shortage of challenges : collective rights, such as reprography which is threatened in Canada by a fair-use exemption for educational purposes, royalties for digital private copying which in several countries also benefit creators of visual works, exceptions and limitations on the rights of creators being debated at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and of course the resale right, which would allow creators, once adopted in Canada, to receive their fair share of the wealth generated by their works when they are resold.

The CIAGP meeting is also an opportunity to discuss the common rules for management organizations to ensure the effectiveness of their exchanges, whether for the identification of works in their repertoire, applications for authorization and the broadcast licenses or the distribution of royalties collected.

This year’s meeting also helped to follow the development of the Automated Image Recognition (AIR) project, through which image recognition software will soon be made available to CIAGP member organizations. The goal is to facilitate the management of works on the internet through image recognition, so that creators can better reap the benefits of digital.